The King's Speech (12A) *****

LAST year Colin Firth was nominated for an leading man Oscar, only to lose out to Jeff Bridges.

LAST year Colin Firth was nominated for an leading man Oscar, only to lose out to Jeff Bridges.

But 2011 might just be his year. He certainly puts in the best male performance I’ve seen for months.

All three leads in this fabulous film have deservedly been nominated for Golden Globes, a sign of what should, if there’s any justice, lie ahead at the Academy Awards.

Firth plays the Duke of York, the King’s second son known as Bertie to his family.

A naval officer, happily married to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, he’s not expected to play a huge part in public life. It’s just as well, as when he has to give a speech in 1925 using “the new invention of radio”, live from Wembley, he finds it really hard to get his words out.

You really feel for him as he stammers his way through, leaving wife Elizabeth (the wonderful Helena Bonham Carter) in tears.

Fast forward to 1934, when he’s a father to Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret but can’t even tell them a bedtime story.

Desperate to find a cure for his speech impediment, he tries everything, from smoking to putting seven marbles in his mouth.

When that fails, Elizabeth seeks out Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) at his Harley Street rooms.

Not realising who she is, he first suggests the patient should change jobs. Then he insists that Bertie should come to him for treatment, hardly what Royalty is used to.

Even when he discovers his famous patient’s identity, Logue still bosses him about and declares that, in Harley Street, they are equals.

“My castle, my rules,” he says, while also daring to call him Bertie. The cheek!

Logue uses unorthodox but effective methods like reading aloud while listening to very loud music and rolling about on the floor.

He gets to know him in a way few others do, although at one point Bertie thinks the “jumped-up jackeroo” has crossed the line.

When his brother Edward (Guy Pearce) abdicates the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, Bertie is thrust into a role he doesn’t want and needs Logue’s help even more. And on the outbreak of war, he must coach him to deliver possibly the most important speech of his life.

One mild note of warning – there is one sustained bout of swearing which you wouldn’t expect in a 12A film, but there is a point to it and it is far more amusing than offensive.

The excellent cast includes Michael Gambon as George VI, Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Timothy Spall as Churchill, Anthony Andrews as Baldwin and Jennifer Ehle as Mrs Logue.

Very funny in some places, full of tension in others and terribly moving at times, The King’s Speech is brilliantly written and performed.